Moving Company Reviews on Meathead Movers

Each Meathead client receives the opportunity to publicly share their experiences with Meathead after the move. We are deeply committed to continuous improvement, total transparency and accountability for all Meathead employees to provide the highest standards in the moving industry.

the movers scratched my new hard wood floors :( trying to move a bed in that obviously would not make it through the door.

Response from Meathead Movers:

We are so sorry to hear that there was damage on your move. We have already placed a call to learn more about what happened and to quickly help get any damage that we are responsible for repaired. We look forward to resolving this.
Thank you!
-Meathead Movers

We've had to use movers and moving services twice in the last 3 years. We've worked with a national company, a local franchise in Orange County affiliated with a national, and Meathead. Meathead Movers was by far our best experience. The student-athlete movers "meatheads" were very polite, hardworking, and highly responsive. None of them slacked about, and if you ask them to move something around, they get to it right away. We were very impressed overall and particularly with Kai when he lifted our washer all by himself without seeming to break a sweat! We will definitely use their services again (IF we ever want to move again!) and unhesitatingly highly recommend them to all.

I have historically had fantastic experiences with Meathead Movers. With that background, I recommended your services to my grandpa (which he used) and to several friends (some who did and others who didn’t use your services). I also chose to use Meathead again, based on this, for my recent move from SLO to Orange County. Based on this last experience, I don’t know whether I would use Meathead again and will most likely be cautious about sharing as a recommendation. The experience this weekend was inconsistent with my first; I expected a much different move. I thought that the guys were nice enough but am disappointed overall with the moving services and also facing expenses as a result of their lack of attention to detail and use of poor judgment.
I filled out the paper-based feedback form with the guys looking at me and without having done a thorough look around at the state and condition of my items. I should have. However, I was aware that it was a holiday weekend and they had a 5 hour drive back to SLO ahead of them. With that I signed the papers and sent them home with the remainder of the extra-large pizza I had purchased for them for lunch. It was only after talking with my family and friends . . . and then an email from my previous landlord, that I regretted as much as I do not better looking around and being more frank on the feedback sheet. I now understand the comment I received as they departed that I’d “been more than generous”.
Ryan and Jeff showed up after calling to confirm the appointment. In the past I had been provided contact information but didn’t think further about it. From the moment they showed up, Ryan (as the mentor in particular) did not seem engaged or invested in the move. There were very few if any follow up questions or demonstration of concern about items I expressed concern about. I repeated my caution on a couple of items – one of which later ended up being broken, because I wasn’t acknowledge and didn’t know whether I’d been heard. The move took longer than I expected but nothing was mentioned about challenges or delays. I did see they took off a door of one of the bedrooms but was focused on cleaning so as to be out by noon. Looking back it would have been helpful – if there were unexpected challenges, to have open dialogue and communication. Once at the storage unit (after packing things at the house), there did not seem to be a sense of urgency. I even started moving items out of the storage unit and onto the pavement next to the truck so that I could at least check out of storage. I
- Even my parents mentioned it seemed they were unhappy or “would rather be any where else”
- Offered lunch but they declined but bought snacks
2nd day
- Understand LD move, not great hotel, travel on a holiday weekend, etc.
- Had to cal, showed up late
- Stopped and asked if everything ok and anything I could do to make the experience better
- I bought lunch and drinks (dr pepper for Ryan and sprite for Jeff), including the other ½ of the extra large pizza for their drive back

In talking with friends and family, I realized how poor the move actually was – especially given the reputation of Meathead and my previous move. Here are some examples, which I will be documenting with pictures:
- Items that were wrapped with plastic were not unwrapped
- Damage of several items including:
o Leg of an antique trunk broken –this will require specialized repair
o Leg of my great-grandpa’s library table gouged
o Lamp shade dirty and bent
o Pottery Barn hat/coat rack scrapped of paint on at least 3 different areas
In addition to that, I just received an email from the landlord about damage at the originating location. The door jam of one of the bedrooms –from which a couch was removed, was very damaged. I would have expected Ryan or Jeff to mention something to me about difficulty and damage. I was focused on cleaning – because moving the furniture out was taking longer. In looking at my couch now (removing the pillows) there is streak of white (paint from the door jam it seems) across the back. Perhaps that’s why the move took longer? Below is the email from my previous landlord stating the damage to me and the next steps regarding expenses, which I plan to pass along to Meathead Movers:
“We did however, find significant damage to the door jamb moldings for BR #1. It looked like chipped marks where furniture or moving equipment hit the moldings - 1 piece was on room side of the door and 1 piece was on the hall side of the door - perhaps occurred when moving in and out? Also notice a small gouge in hall wall opposite BR #1's door and as well similar gouge on common wall between BR #1 and BR #2. Each of these will require repairs and likely replacement on the door moldings.
Since you've exclusively had BR #2, It seems perhaps your movers may have caused this damage.
I don't have cost estimate yet but wanted to alert you so you could perhaps notify moving company. I'm pleased to show them or your Dad if you like, the damage ref'd above. In the meantime I'll work up and estimate for the repairs however, the final cost will be the actual cost vs. me perhaps over or under-estimating it.”
I would like for Meathead to pay for damages incurred which includes the repair of the door jam and to items mentioned above. I appreciate that Meathead is committed to meeting the needs of customers. I have been very complimentary of services before but in no way can back them at this point unless remedied.
Regards,
First name removed

Response from Meathead Movers:

Thank you for your detailed feedback and taking the time to speak with us regarding your moving experience. As we have discussed, our clean-cut student athletes are required to JOG when not carrying your items when the conditions are safe. Unfortunately, your move took place an an extremely hot day and the extreme weather did not provide a safe environment for our guys to jog in. In addition, you had a large move and our guys were extremely focused on making sure it was succesful and can assure you they had nowhere else they wanted to be.
In regards to the damage at your origin. The crew knew the doorway was tight and had door jam pads in order to prevent damage. When they removed the pads, they did not notice any damage and this is why it was not brought to your attention.
Again, thank you so much for your honest feedback. We are happy to hear that you will still consider us for a future move and look forward to expediting your claim.
Kind Regards
-Meathead Movers

The two young men who moved my 89 year old mother from her apartment in the Los Angeles area to Camarillo were straightforward, helpful, and accommodating. They were so calm they helped keep her, and me calm. I highly recommend Meathead Movers for a stress-free moving experience.

I have been moved by professional movers 7 times in my life, and this was not the worst. But they were not in the top 3 either.

The Good: They were polite, clean, showed up on time. They were nice people who were trying to please, and I'd be happy to have them over to a BBQ. Nothing was missing from the move. They did not jack up the price in any way with hidden costs over the “not to exceed” price when the move took longer than they expected. When objects were incorrectly placed in unloading (as there were 6 of them and I couldn’t be everywhere at once), they were willing to adjust their location per my direction, which was very helpful.

The Bad: the claims of hustle are just plain false. They were kind of slow. Several times the leaders were discussing what to load next (or unload next) and the others (I had 6 people) were standing around talking. So I had to pick up something and say “Hey, can someone help me with this”. Yes, I worked as a mover that day too in order to get them to move stuff.

They did not ‘jog’ to get another load (admittedly it was a long hot day so that is understandable), but they should not advertise that their people will jog to pick up the next load when they are not going to be doing it.

They were underequipped. Typically I have seen movers use dollies to carry stacks of boxes into the truck, and then out from the truck to the house. They did not have dollies and carried one box at a time by hand, when I believe they could easily have carried heavier loads of say 2 small boxes at once, or stacks of boxes with a dolly. This translates into more time. They also did not use any battery power tools to screw and unscrew hardware, they use hand tools - more time.

As a result of being out of time, many items that were cellophane wrapped were not unwrapped, which took my wife and I several hours to unwrap.

I used them for packing too. Some of the packers did a good job, and some were more careless. Some of the boxes were unmarked mystery boxes, and most that were marked were not helpful, for example I have at least 8 boxes marked “Kitchen Misc.” Others are just plain mismarked for example a wardrobe box saying “daughter’s bedroom”, but really is all entrance coat closet stuff.

The Ugly: I have not found any major damage, but there are a number of scratches and dings on the furniture and wood floor. At least twice I noticed the same person banged legs of furniture on the front porch step as he entered, either he didn’t learn, or that was his method of finding the location of the porch step. Some of the “meatheads” were very careful, but not all of them.

Overall: Not bad, but I’d recommend trying a different movers next time.

Response from Meathead Movers:

Thank you so much for sharing with us what you experienced and taking the time to talk with us post-move. Our clean-cut student athletes are always required to JOG when not carrying any items, but only when there is room to jog. Additionally, the only exceptions of not jogging is if the weather deems it unsafe (i.e. rain, extreme heat, etc.) or, in this case if the truck is parked so close to the home. Part of the frustrations may have also derived from us having to work around the painting crew that was present throughout the day, after reviewing your comments with the crew; we feel that they did the best they could give the circumstances and we are sorry you feel otherwise. Regarding not using the dollies: in the interest of being efficient, our employees decided it was best not to use dollies(despite having the dollies on the truck) not only to protect your nice wood floors but because it is sometimes was quicker and safer to just carry the items. After each move our crews do a walk through with the client (as we did in your case) and per your request, we did take off the shrink wrap when requested. However many of your items, especially the dining room furniture, we understood that you wanted to have the shrink wrap left on in order to protect it while the painters finished their job- we apologize for the miss-understanding and our offer to come by and take the shrink wrap off at no charge is still available . We take all of our of client’s comments seriously and strive to improve from every moving job we perform. We are very sorry that your move did not go as anticipated and again thank you for your willingness to share what happened.
Thank you!
-Meathead Movers

Drew and Ben were great and I appreciated their professionalism. We weren't moving a lot, and they helped us working in some more items to meet the 4-hour minimum that we were paying for. I really appreciated that!

Everyone I talked to was very professional and educated about the moving process. The Meatheads sent to help with my move were trained and knew exactly what to do even with my awkward pieces of furniture and had no trouble with my narrow staircase. With the amount of stuff that I had they thought that the minimum would be 3 hours and they were all done in 2 hours. Everyone was very friendly and I would hire them again. It was a little pricey, but I was paying for professionally trained movers. They were great.

I like how nice and helpful everyone was from start to finish. I felt well taken care of and everything was explained to me along the way to the point I felt very comfortable with my movers and trusted them whole-heartedly.

Your truck was not stocked with the tools the moving crew needed to take furniture apart and put back together using more time than need to do the move. Also you normaly have magic erasors to take marks off furniture and walls. They also were not on the vehicle.